Last week on "True Blood": Bill hatched a plan, Sookie glimpsed her parents' killer, Jessica had a close call, Alcide lost a challenge, and Lafayette channeled Terry's tormentor.

A Tru Blood factory in Texas that supplies more than a quarter of the world's supply of synthetic blood has exploded. The Authority's work has begun, and the inner circle -- Nora, Salome, Eric, Bill, the Rev. Steve and Russell -- are celebrating with a feast of naked, bound, weirdly hairless, and terrified grown man. Russell asks to say grace, and just as Salome is about to comply, the Rev. Steve offers up his own goofy blessing from his human days. Russell is tickled, but Salome is not amused. And then they all dig in.

Molly, the tech-savvy young vamp, tries to leave the Authority's compound, but her access has been denied. The compound is on lockdown. She's locking up her hardcore-looking suitcase in a cage when Eric approaches; he wants a safe place for them to talk. Molly has enough clearance to douse the security cameras for 30 seconds, and in that time, they try to figure out a way they can escape. Molly's only idea, she says, is stupid and will probably get Eric killed. "Sounds perfect," he says.

Eric confronts Bill about drinking the vampire-deity-laced-Kool-Aid. Bill is having some sort of crisis of faith -- or rather, his crisis is that he finally has some faith. He really believes he saw Lilith, despite Eric's assertion that the blood was just laced with some sort of hallucinogen. "What about Sookie?" Eric asks Bill. "Is she just food to you now?" Bill is torn. He hands Bill a pipette -- he'll get Nora's blood, and Bill will get Salome's blood, and they'll make their escape.

Eric finds Nora praying before Lilith. He wonders how she can have so much faith in something. Nora says that all she used to care about was rising up through the ranks of the Authority, perhaps one day becoming Guardian, but Salome showed her the path to God by giving her a taste of Salome's blood and thus blowing her mind. "Believing in something other than yourself doesn't make you weak," she tells Eric. "I don't want to fight you," Eric tells her. "I want to believe. Will you help me?" "Yes." They kiss.

Bill is in Salome's bed, watching her dance. She says she's been chosen to change history, not once, but twice, and Bill has been chosen as well, as Salome's Adam. "We will build a new world together," she tells him. But Bill shows some doubt. "Her blood is inside you," Salome says. "Let it be your guide." They start having sex, but suddenly he sees Sookie in Salome's place, and starts feeding on her. Sookie/Salome moans. When Bill looks down again, Sookie has been replaced by a blood-soaked Lilith, who starts feeding on Bill. Then we're back to Salome. Bill puts his fingers inside his mouth and brings them out, blood-stained. Mission accomplished ... I think.

Eric leads Nora toward the elevator, but they find Molly in the lobby. Molly tosses Eric a syringe, and he grabs Nora and injects the contents in her, knocking her out. He uses Nora's finger to access the elevator as Bill shows up. "Ready to get the hell out here?" Eric says, as the elevator doors slide open. Salome is inside with her stormtroopers. They quickly surround Bill and Molly. Eric realizes Bill betrayed him. "I'm doing this for you," Bill says. "We've been chosen by Lilith. This is what God wants." Eric looks around and defangs himself. A weird cover of "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" plays as Eric is led away. Bill and Salome share a smile.

Sookie has hired Lafayette to use his medium skillz to find the creepy spirit thingie that threatened her in her bathroom. "Creepy spirit thingie, why you in Sookie's bathroom?," Lafayette says. I love that Lafayette has gotten his mojo back, but is that the whole reason for his visions of a body-less Jesus and his bloody Mexican weekend? Lot of work for not a heck of a lot of return -- kind of like entire Mavis subplot from last season. Lafayette gets no response from the creepy spirit thingie. Sookie wonders whether Tara has reached out to Lafayette. She's sent him one text, Lafayette says, pulling out his cell phone: "Bitch, stop texting me or I will eat you." Sookie actually perks up at this: Sounds like the old Tara. Suddenly, Lafayette starts hearing voices in Sookie's bedroom, lots of voices, but he manages to isolate one from Gran: She's glad the fairies are looking out for Sookie, and if she wants to learn more about Warlow, look under her bed.

Under Gran's bed, Sookie finds a box with baby pictures, photo albums, and a framed report card of Jason's -- the only one in which he earned a B. Lafayette notes that Lynn Dearborne, the former sheriff's wife, was his sixth grade teacher. Okay, I'm starting to regret dismissing that random scene between Andy and Bud a couple of episodes back. Sookie reads a newspaper clipping about her parents' deaths, and finds out that Bud is the deputy who responded to the scene. Maybe that's what Gran wanted Sookie find. "Dead folk, why y'all got to be so cryptic?" Lafayette sniffs.

Meanwhile, Jessica, rescued from the Supe Klux Klan house, is at the Sheriff's Office. Jason shows up while Kendra is questioning her. She wants them to find Hoyt -- usually she can sense Hoyt because she's consumed his blood, but she's not getting any reading now. Meanwhile, Luna seems to have recovered somewhat from her skinwalking and despite Sam's protests, she insists on going out looking for the supe-haters. They also say they love each other in the least romantic way possible.

At the Sheriff's Office, deputy Kevin is looking through Joe Bob's computer, and sees that he visited one website, keepamericahuman.com, hundreds of times. The website includes video of Obama-masked yahoos "helping" vampires meet the sun. "Long live the dragon!" the anti-supes yell on the video. "There's dragons now?" Jason wonders. Andy makes the leap that the dragon they're talking about must be the leader of the Supe Ku Klux. Jason and Andy confront Joe Bob in his prison cell about the dragon, but Joe Bob isn't talking, even when Jason starts to beat the crap out of him. Andy stops Jason, but when Joe Bob calls Jason a loser who screwed over his best friend for sex with a dead woman, Andy loses it on Joe Bob, too.

HBOJessica (Deborah Ann Woll), who was captured and nearly staked by anti-supes, appeals to Jason (Ryan Kwanten) to find Hoyt.

Sookie visits Bud Dearborne at his house and asks about her parents. Did he notice any marks or bites on them when he found their bodies? Bud says that looking back on it now, yes, but at the time, they didn't know about vampires, so they attributed the wounds to gators. It must be hard, he tells Sookie, knowing that vamps killed her parents and her grandmother. Sookie says that Rene killed her grandmother, not vampires. But Bud points out that Rene did it because of vampires, so they might as well have killed Gran. Then Sookie tunes into his mind and hears Bud thinking that Sookie is on to him, she knows what he's hiding. Sookie "accidentally" splashes ginger ale on him, and uses the opportunity to grab his arm and give him a good penetrating read. She asks him whether the name Warlow means anything to him, and she reads that it doesn't. He pushes her off him. "I'm sorry," Sookie says. "I made a mistake." Suddenly a woman brandishing a cast-iron frying pan smacks Sookie in the head with it. "You sure did," the woman says.

Luna and Sam show up at the Sheriff's Office and tell Andy that they returned to the house where Jessica was kept and smelled pig poop there. Andy brushes them off. Luna and Sam decide to make like one of the proverbial flies on the wall.

Sookie wakes up and discovers she's tied up in a pig sty. Hoyt is in the next pen, tied up but still alive, though unconscious and high as a kite. Must have been Bud who picked him up at the end of last episode. The yahoos in the Obama masks come in. Unfortunately, just as her atomic fairy hands would have come in handy, they've run out of juice. Hate it when that happens.

After wailing on Joe Bob, Andy is feeling sorry for himself and thinks maybe the best thing would be to do what Bud did -- simply retire. But Kevin discovers that Bud has a link to both Junior and Joe Bob; he arrested both of them. Just then, Andy spots one of the Obama-masked yahoos on the video doing a jig wearing fancy cowboy boots. They're the same boots the deputies got Bud as a retirement gift. "Bud's the dragon," Andy realizes. The flies hear him.

It's Bud in the Obama mask. He tells Sookie that supes are taking over the world, murdering innocent people. Even good old Sam?, Sookie says. The woman with the frying pan says that Sam is buying up the town of Bon Temps and plans on converting the populace for his own perverted shifter reasons. Who are you, Sookie asks. "Sweetie Des Arts," she says. She yells at Bud to give Sookie the ginger ale, and when he protests that she's not part of the conspiracy, Sweetie snaps that she's supe, and that's all that matters.

Sookie tells Bud that he was the sheriff of Bon Temps, sworn to protect people. "The law gives monsters equal rights and sends patriots like my cousin Joe Bob to jail for sticking up for his own kind," Bud says. "All the law ever gave me was cancer in my ass and a sexless marriage." Sweetie says that when the revolution is over, they'll write a new law that calls for shooting supes on sight. "What happened to you?" Sookie says. "Something awful must have happened to you to fill you with so much crazy hate." She reads Sweetie's mind, and it's pathetically typical -- her husband left Sweetie for a shifter. Bud tries to force-feed Sookie some Oxy-laced ginger ale. He also tells Sookie that Sweetie is the dragon of Renard Parish.

A little bit later, Andy, Jason, Kendra and Kevin show up at Bud's house, but he's not there. Jason sees a picture of Bud's wife Lynne, his old teacher, and he remembers that her family owned a pig farm near Kickapoo. Andy recalls Sam and Luna's tip about the pig poop.

It turns out the Supe Klux Klan's big idea is to videotape feeding the doped-up Sookie and Hoyt to the pigs. Only one of the pigs happens to be Sam, who pops up and starts kicking butt. Andy and Co. bust in just as Bud is about to attack Sam with a spade (and we know from season one that spades can be lethal). Andy tells Bud to drop the spade, but Bud yells, "Humans rule!" and aims for Sam -- but Andy shoots him dead. Hoyt's got a pulse, but a weak one, and he's taken to the hospital.

Luna, in dog form, chases Sweetie through the fields, and turns back into human form and takes her down. "That's for shooting me," Luna tells her, smacking her in the face. "That's for my boyfriend"; another smack. "And this is for my daughter, you human trash," Luna screams, punching her.

For the record, Sam tells Andy, he's not the worst sheriff in Renard Parish history.

Sookie is at home, watching coverage of two more Tru Blood factory explosions, when Claude and two of her fairy cousins walk into the living room. They tell her that vampires are behind all of the factory fires: "They're taking over the world."

As Pam watches coverage of the Tru Blood factory explosion and reports of runs on Tru Bloods elsewhere in the country, Tara carries a few cases into the back office, saying they've got enough to last a couple of weeks. Pam orders her to keep selling the artificial blood; she doesn't want to be put out of business when the vampires start eating their human customers. And when the Tru Blood runs out? The vamps will start "discreetly" feeding on humans, Pam says. "It's gonna be a bloodbath out there," Tara says. She puts two and two together: There are vampires behind this, that's what they want. Pam demurs, saying she stays away from politics (and humans who like fish, for that matter). Tara realizes that Pam is concerned about Eric. If she wants to talk ... "Just because we drank a bitch together does not make us Oprah and Gayle," Pam snaps. HBO, please reboot "The Odd Couple" with Pam and Tara. Pretty please?

Inside the bar, the vamps are downing Tru Blood like there's no tomorrow, and Pam spots one fanger on Eric's throne, feeding on a human in full sight. She marches over and orders him out. "Get out of my maker's chair before I stake you all over it." The vampire, who looks remarkably like Pee Wee Herman from the movie version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," tells her that the monarchs have lifted the ban on public feeding, and Eric Northman is history. He says he's the new sheriff of Area 5. And then he throws Pam across the room. "Everybody grab a human," the new sheriff says. "The drinks are on me."

Terry is heading out to find Patrick against Arlene's wishes. Arlene points out that the last ghost Lafayette channeled tried to steal their baby, so maybe he's way off base with the ifrit, but Terry won't listen. He says Patrick deserves a fair fight, may the better man win. What about what Arlene and Mikey deserve, she says. "Baby, if it wasn't for you ... you're the only reason I'm fighting at all." He kisses her goodbye. I've been saying that the ifrit storyline is one too many, but Todd Lowe just justified it this one for me.

Arlene is opening up Merlotte's for the day when Patrick comes up behind her and points a gun at her head. He tells her that if she does what he says, she'll make it out alive. He makes her call Lafayette and tell him that Merlotte's is closed for the day.

Hours later (it's now dark), Terry turns up at Merlotte's. Patrick tells him to drop his weapons, so Terry tosses his gun and a knife. Once inside, he sees Patrick holding a gun on Arlene. Terry tells him he'll give him a fair fight, but Patrick says that Terry is stronger than him. "You're a better soldier, a better man," Patrick tells him, then makes him get down on his knees. As he's about to execute Terry, Arlene stabs him in the neck. Terry knocks the gun out of his hand, and Patrick and Terry start fighting. Eventually Patrick gets the upper hand, but Arlene has now got the gun and has it pointed at Patrick's head.

At Merlotte's, Arlene has turned the gun over to Terry and tells him to shoot Patrick. Patrick tries playing some mind games with Terry, telling him that this whole mess started when he took orders from Patrick, and this time, Terry has got to heed his conscience. The Iraqi woman suddenly appears and walks toward Terry. "Do what is right," she tells Terry. At first, I think she's giving him the okay to back down. Terry relaxes for a moment, then, with dead eyes, shoots Patrick. "Blood has been paid with blood," the Iraqi woman tells Terry, then expels the smoke monster through her mouth. When the ifrit is finished, Patrick is just a pool of blood on the floor.

Alcide, fresh from his disastrous packmaster challenge, is driving home to Jackson and flashes back to joining his own pack as a teenager. The kid playing him doesn't look a thing like him, nor does the girl playing a young Debbie Pelt. Alcide's father, played by Robert Patrick, is lecturing them about what means to be part of a pack -- it's what subverts their human greed and connects them to something greater, something beyond their own individual desires. "Today you're given a choice," Alcide's father says. "Who will be your guide? Man or beast? Human or wolf?" As Alcide and Debbie pledge to their pack, Alcide's father wipes blood on their foreheads. Alcide and Debbie look into each other's eyes.

Alcide pulls up beside a trailer and finds his father inside, drinking a beer and watching a horse race. Alcide asks him how much he bet on the race. His whole disability check, it turns out. Alcide tells him that he lost the packmaster challenge and has been abjured by the Shreveport pack. "So you're a lone wolf now, just like your old man," his father says with a rueful chuckle. Alcide: "I'm nothing like you." "Sure you're not."

Russell and the Rev. Steve are ambling through the woods while Russell waxes nostalgic about his collection of werewolf minions. Steve says he's never had a pet: "My father was allergic to everything except God." Russell: "You forget that bloodbag. Stick with me, darlin'. I'll give you the world." He draws Steve close, but they don't kiss. Instead, he pulls back the door of a barn -- the Shreveport werepack's barn.

Russell congratulates J.D. on his new title, opens one of his veins, and lets J.D. and the other wolves drink. Martha, holding Emma in wolf form, looks on angrily. Russell spots Martha in the back and invites her to drink. "I chose my pack and I swore I'd die for it, but I'll never drink from you, fanger," Martha says. Russell to Steve: "The smarter the creature, the more discipline it needs." He grabs Emma and gives her to Steve. "For you, darlin', your first pet." Martha begs J.D. to stop him, but when J.D. tires, Russell grabs him by the throat. "Did you think my blood was free? You silly, silly dog."